Apparatus for throwing discrete substances



June 19, 1962 s. w. LUCAS 3,039,594

APPARATUS FOR mnowmc DISCRETE SUBSTANCES Filed Dec. 29, 1959 2Sheets-She s. 1

INVENTOR:

E 3 55 I S.W.Lucz1s ATT il-N59:

GILcMri k Jun 9, 1962 s. w. LUCAS 3,039,594

APPARATUS FOR THROWING DISCRETE SUBSTANCES Filed Dec. 29, 1959 2Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOIL:

S. W. Lucas O lodbt ATTORNEUS United States Patent G 3,039,594 APPARATUSFOR THROWING DISCRETE SUBSTANCES Samuel -Walter Lucas, 6 MarlboroughSt., Sherwood, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Filed Dec. 29, 1959, Ser.No. 862,689 Claims priority, application Australia Dec. 30, 1958 3Claims. (Cl. 198128) This invention relates to apparatus for throwingdiscrete substances.

The invention refers more particularly to apparatus of the type nowemployed extensively for throwing discrete materials, such as sugar,grain and the like, from one position to' anotheras in the bulk loadingof a ships hold or in establishing a stock-pile.

Examples of this type of apparatus, hereinafter referred to as of thetype described may 'be found in my United States patent specificationsNos. 671,985; Patent No. 2,920,746 and 770,209, now Patent No.2,979,185, the most essential feature being an endless thrower-beltpassing around spaced, parallel, horizontally-disposed end rollers, theupper or working surface of the thrower-belt being constrained to movein an arcuate path by pressure exerted by narrow, intermediate deflectorwheels arranged between the end rollers and bearing on the marginalportions at either side of the belt.

The discrete substance or material to be thrown is directed down ontothe upper surface of the thrower-belt so that, when the latter is drivenat high speed, the substance or material will be forcibly projected in aconcentratedstream. The apparatus may be in the form of a mobile machineor it may be a housing suspended, through a turntable device from thelower end of a telescopic conduit for location in a ships hold. In thelatter case, the dual purposes of loading and trimming may beaccomplished by providing a hinged gate or flap in the housing to directthe sugar or other material to either arm of a bifurcated chute, one armfeeding the material to the thrower-belt, while the other extends to therear of the housing and is adapted to direct the material directlydownwards for trimming purposes. These alternative loading and trimmingfunctions are illustrated in the machine described in my Uni-ted Statespatent specification No. 770,209.

*In small-capacity machines of this type, it is possible to use acomparatively narrow belt, but larger machines, such as that shown in myUnited States patent specification No. 671,985, may use a wide belt ofdesired width to give a very large capacity or throwing rate, this beingpossible by the provision of division discs on the shaft of thedeflector wheels, these division discs acting firstly to preventundesirable bulging of the belt and secondly to divide the stream offeed material into laterally-spaced compartments to assist inmaintaining a constant, concentrated delivery stream.

While my machines of these types have proved very efficient in generaloperation in connection with the throwing of sugar, wheat and many othermaterials, it will be appreciated that there is no limit to thedesirable degree of efficiency for any purpose and that even greaterefiiciency than at present achieved is necessary or at least desirablefor the most effective handling of certain materials, such as barley andrice. Accordingly, my present invention has been devised with this asits principal object, the feature of the invention being the provisionof improved means for directing the feed material to the endlessthrower-belt.

Broadly, the invent-ion resides in apparatus of the type described,characterized in that the shaft of the deflector wheels has mountedthereon one or more discs having ice radial corrugations or projectionswhich, upon rotation of the discs, act upon and exert a downwardimpelling force in the direction of the thrower-belt on particles ofmaterial in the stream of material being fed gravitationally towards thethrower-belt. Preferably, the radial corrugations or projections arearranged around the periphery of the discs in equally spaced manner.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a partly broken-away side elevational view of one form ofloading and trimming apparatus for use in a ships hold, incorporatingthe invention;

FIG. 2 is a partly broken-away front elevational view of the apparatusshown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational View of portion of the thrower-belt of theapparatus;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view, showing the upper or working surface ofportion of the thrower-belt, and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of one of the discs according to thepresent invention.

The apparatus shown in the drawings includes a housing 10 built up of apair of shwt metal side plates 11 and other plates and angle ironswelded together. Into an opening at the top of the housing 10 there isfitted one arm 12 of a bifurcated chute 13, the other arm 14 of thechute 13 leading to the rear of the housing 10 for trimming purposes.Within the chute 13, there is provided a hinged gate :or flap (indicatedin broken outline at 15 in FIG. 1) adapted to be moved by anhydraulically-operated mechanism 16 to either the trimming positionindicated in FIG. 1 in which the material is directed down the arm 14 ofthe chute 13 or to a loading position in which the flap 15 is verticalto allow the material to pass down the arm 12 of the chute 13.

Secured within the upper end of the chute 13 is a lower conduit 17shaped to develop downwardly from square to rectangular cross-sectionand adapted to be connected in well-known manner, through turn-tablemeans, to the lower end of a telescopic substantially vertical conduitfor sugar or the like.

Within the housing 10, an electric motor 18 is pivotally mounted inadjustable manner upon a motor mounting frame 19 and has a drive pulley20 connected through belts 21 to a pulley 22 on a rear transverse shaft23 rotatably mounted in a fixed position between the side plates 11 inrear of the arm 12 of the chute 13. A drive roller (not shown) isfixedly mounted on the shaft 23 and is connected by an endlessthrower-belt 24 to an identical front roller 25 fixedly mounted on afront shaft 26. The ends of the shaft 26 are carried inlongitudinally-adjustable bearings in upper arms 27 of bell-cranks 28which are pivoted at 29 to the side plates 11 of the housing 10. Thelower arms 30 of the bell-cranks 28 are interconnected by a rod 31adapted to be moved by an hydraulic ram and cylinder 32. Thus the frontroller 25 may be pivotally raised or lowered by the cylinder 32 or maybe longitudinally adjusted along the bell-crank arm 27 to give adequateadjustment of the angle of throw of the discrete material by thethrower-belt 24.

The upper part of the thrower-belt 24 is depressed be tween the driverollerand front roller 25 by a pair of deflector wheels 33 secured to atransverse shaft 34 rotatably mounted between the side plates 11, thesedeflector wheels 33 bearing upon the marginal or side portions of thethrower-belt 24.

The thrower-belt 24 is of novel design, being shown more particularly inFIGS. 3 and 4, and it will be seen that it is of uniform thicknessexcept for the provision of regularly spaced grooves 35 extendingbetween such portions of its edges as are contacted by the deflectorwheels 33, these extreme edges 36 being plainand of uniform thickness.Each groove 35 has a vertical face 37 with the lower extremity thereofconnected back to the top face of the belt by an inclined face 38, theupward inclination of the face 38 being in the intended direction ofmotion of the belt 24, as indicated by the arrows 39 in FIGS. 3 and 4.The thrower-belt 24 may be of conventional fabric-cored or other knownconstruction, faced with or enveloped in rubber or the like, the grooves35 being moulded integrally therewith.

Thus, when considered in longitudinal section, the thrower-belt 24 hasregularly-spaced ribs or teeth 40 between and defined by the grooves 35,each rib being of saw-tooth profile and having a short vertical face 37,an upwardly-inclined face 38 and a normally upper and horizontal topface 41, the width of the latter being, for example, about two-thirdsthe width of the groove 35, while the depth of the vertical face 37 maybe about one-half the width of the top face 41.

The deflector wheel shaft 34 also has secured thereon threedisc-assemblies 42, one of which is shown in detail in FIG. 5, the threebeing arranged in equally-spaced manner along the shaft 34 and extendingback into the arm 12 of the chute 13, slots 43 being provided in thelatter for this purpose.

Each disc-assembly 42 includes a central, hollow cylindrical hub 44having welded thereabout a plain, centrally-apertured inner disc 45which may suitably have a thickness of about three-eighths inch. Anouter disc 46, of lesser thickness than the disc 45-such as oneeighthinch-has a central aperture to closely accommodate the inner disc =45and is welded thereabout. The outer disc is of slightly lesser overalldiamete than the deflector wheels 33 and it has a series ofequally-spaced, radial corrugations, as shown in FIG. extending from itsouter periphery to the periphery of the inner disc 45 where thecorrugations may be of reduced or zero deformity.

The general operation of the overall apparatus is similar to that of theprevious machines and will be readily apparent from the description anddrawings, the discrete material being thrown in a stream from the frontof the apparatus by the thrower-belt 24 which will have increasedefliciency by virtue of the novel saw-tooth configuration.

The principal feature of this invention is the provision of one or moreof the disc-assemblies 42 which differ from the division discspreviously devised by me in that they do not have perfectly flat sidefaces but are radially ribbed or corrugated in some or all of theportion outside the hub. Thus, during rotation, the disc exerts on theparticles of material a frictional force in the direction of the belt,this thrust acting to grip and throw the particles against the belt,with the result that they are more eflicient- 1y gripped by the belt andprojected from the apparatus.

The disc-assemblies 42 may be adjustable along the shaft 34 if sodesired, and they may also serve the usual purposes of division discsand of preventing the belt from bulging when used with wide belts.However, they would not prove necessary for this latter purpose whenused with narrow belts, and they are particularly useful with suchnarrow belts because they give a very much greater throwing effect in acomparatively inexpensive machine. It may also be mentioned that in amachine having an even wider I rower-belt than that shown in thedrawings, the middle disc-assembly 42 would preferably be provided iwith a plain outer disc 46 to avoid any tendency of the corrugated discsto cut the belt when the latter is bulging.

It will be appreciated that the aforedescribed corrugations of the disc46 may be replaced by any other suitable type of projection which willfulfill the same purpose. Also, the discs need not have truly radialvanes, ribs or corrugations but may have them arranged at almost anyangle to enable a sweeping action to be obtained to exert a frictionalforce or thrust on the particles. Furthermore, the vanes Or ribs may beformed integrally with the discs or afiixed thereto in any desiredmanner, and any suitable number of such discs may be provided. Suchmodifications will be readily apparent and will be deemed to residewithin the scope and ambit of the invention, as defined by the appendedclaims. The thrower-belt illustrated herein is described in greaterdetail and claimed in my copending patent application Ser. No. 862,690,filed concurrently herewith.

] claim:

1. Apparatus of the type described for throwing discrete substances,comprising a housing having an opening for the ejection of materialparticles, an endless throwerbelt, means rotating and supporting saidthrower-belt within said housing adjacent said opening, a chute armlocated within said housing for feeding said material particles to saidthrower-belt, a transverse shaft rotatably mounted in said housing,deflector wheels secured to said shaft and bearing upon marginalportions of said throwerbelt, and at least one disc mounted on saidshaft and having at least around its outer portion equally-spaced,radial, integral corrugations which, upon rotation of the disc, act uponand exert a downward impelling force in the direction of thethrower-belt on particles of material in the stream of material beingfed gravitationally towards the thrower-belt.

2. Apparatus of the type described for throwing discrete substances,according to claim 1, wherein the disc comprises an inner plain portionand an outer corrugated portion of lesser thickness than the plainportion.

3. Apparatus fo throwing granular substances, comprising, in combinationwith a housinghaving an opening for the ejection of a granularsubstance, an endless thrower-belt, means rotating and supporting saidthrowerbelt within said housing adjacent said opening, a chute armlocated within said housing for feeding said granular substance to saidthrower-belt, a transverse shaft rot-atably mounted in said housing, anda pair of deflector wheels secured to said shaft and bearing uponmarginal portions of said thrower-belt; a plurality of disc assembliessecured to said shaft and located between said deflector wheels, saiddisc assemblies extending through slots formed in said chute arm, eachof said disc assemblies comprising a plain inner disc and an outer discenclosing said inner disc and having spaced radial corrugationsextending from the periphery :of the outer disc to the periphery of theinner disc, whereby said corrugations exert an impelling force onparticles of said granular substance while it is being fed by said chutearm toward said thrower-belt.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

